4 killed, several injured in Canadian school shooting

PanARMENIAN.Net - Four people have been killed and several injured in shootingsin the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, police said, according to BBC News.

They say a male suspect is now in custody and children have been moved to safety after the shootings at La Loche Community School and another location.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said earlier that five people had been killed, but this was later corrected.

The school shooting was "every parent's worst nightmare", he said. "The community is reeling."

Trudeau, who was speaking in Davos, Switzerland, also praised "the first responders who acted quickly and bravely".

Witnesses at the school described screaming and more than half a dozen shots.

Kevin Janvier, acting mayor of La Loche, said that his 23-year-old daughter Marie, a teacher, was one of the victims at the school. He also said police had told him that the gunman first shot two of his siblings at home and then made his way to the school.

At a news conference, Maureen Levy, a senior officer at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said: "There's no risk to public safety at this time. This is truly a tragedy." She provided no further details.

RCMP said they were called about "an active shooter" at 13:00 local times (19:00 GMT) and detained the suspect 45 minutes later, Canada's CBC broadcaster reported.

About 900 students attend La Loche Community School for kindergarten through to grade 12 (the last year of high school). La Loche is an aboriginal community of about 3,000 people. It is located about 500km (311 miles) north-west of the city of Prince Albert.

This is said to be Canada's worst school shooting since 14 people were killed by a gunman at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique in 1989.